Source: CNN
(CNN)Hundreds of firefighters are battling a blaze in Los Angeles County that has forced at least 5,000 people to evacuate their homes, authorities said.
Since the inferno started Saturday afternoon it has already torched 516 acres, Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp said. As of Sunday morning, the blaze was 30% contained.
The fire is on the slope of a canyon, “which makes it very dangerous for us to do a direct attack,” Tripp said.
The wildfire broke out Saturday afternoon in the Calabasas area — a relatively affluent part of Los Angeles County that is home to a handful of celebrities, including Jessica Simpson and Toni Braxton, authorities said.
Firefighters battle the blaze near Calabasas on Saturday.
About 3,700 homes — or about 5,000 people — were ordered to evacuate in Calabasas and nearby Topanga, mountainous communities west of Los Angeles and north of Malibu.
On Sunday morning, authorities lifted the evacuation order for Calabasas, but Topanga residents should stay away, officials said.
“The fire is not on the road, it is halfway up the side of a mountain,” Tripp said. “That’s why we can’t let people back in their homes.”
So far, the blaze has destroyed a large building and damaged two homes, he said.
How it started
The fire started around 4:15 p.m. PT Saturday when a pickup truck struck a power pole on Mulholland Highway in Calabasas, the sheriff’s department said.“Witnesses reported that the truck was traveling at a high rate of speed before colliding into a power pole, causing the pole to fall and a transformer to explode, thus igniting the Calabasas fire,” Deputy Jeffrey A. Gordon said.
Temperatures in nearby Topanga reached the mid-90s earlier in the day, according to the National Weather Service.
The fire has been dubbed the “Old Fire” due to its proximity to Old Topanga Canyon Road. It came right up to the edges of Calabasas High School and Viewpoint School.
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